AND LIFE GOES ON

I think this was the album that got me started with looking into modern progressive rock bands. I'm not positive about that fact, but when I look back on this album now I wouldn't doubt it one bit. Just a little bit of history on how I ended up discovering a French band with no previous albums to start my modern progressive rock journey, The Black Noodle Project was formed in the French capital and media-hub of Paris, where any album can explode onto the market quickly. The rest is history, and here I sit writing about it.

One rumor that I would like to end right now is the rumor that this band is a Pink Floyd wanna-be. Sure their major influence is Pink Floyd, but the above statement is completely not true, my friends. I suppose they could be the same in the sense the Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and Jeremie Grima both write their songs with a raw passion that can only be surfaced through musical expression, but the music can obviously tell the difference between the two bands. Black Noodle Project plays every note with an unbridled emotion and sings every word with a sense of passion that Pink Floyd sometimes managed to grow cold on over the years.

Now onto the music, shall we? The concept of the album, which I just learned after listens, is how to let go of a broken relationship. Even though their are a few heavier passages, the album is mainly layered with spacey textures to give the feeling of someone's deepest reaches of depression. I suppose the soaring lead guitar and mellow piano textures are responsible, although the saxophone on "Do It Alone" is an amazing touch. The first thing that broke the Pink Floyd wanna-be connection in my mind was the heavy percussions mixed with subtle keyboards, while Pink Floyd tends to go vice-versa.

"Time Has Passed" opens the album with some wind blowing and clocks chiming, and then a tribal drum beat and subtle acoustic guitar set the tone for would will be the style of music throughout the whole album. Once the song starts to come to life, that soaring lead guitar that I was talking about rips into the atmosphere and drenches the remaining sounds with some beautiful riffs. The vocals are slightly accented,, and that just adds to the romanticism that Grima was trying to achieve on this album. "Do It Alone" starts off with the sounds of rain pouring and thunder in the distance, but the effects give way to some a cappella vocals before the piano tones flood the speakers. Like I said before, the saxophone is an amazing touch, and this is the only song on the album where it can be heard. Definitely something to check out, meaning the saxophone solo with tribal drum beats.

The next track is their heaviest song by far. "Where Everything Is Dark" starts out very slowly, and builds up with some very suspenseful atmospheres created by the echoing vocals and subtle riffs, but the explodes into a machine of guitar fueled aggression, however the piano manages to keep the song in touch with the melancholy mood of the album. Once again, the vocals are a winner for me. The accented Francophone English compliments the mood of the music so well. This where the heavy percussion comes into play on the album as well, it provides the backbone for some almost techno-sounding lead guitar solos. Their next song, "Face The Truth", takes all of the edge right out of the previous song and replaces it with subtle beauty. A reviewer on another website had compared the beginning to Eric Carmen's "All By Myself", and I do not disagree with her, although unlike "All By Myself", "Face The Truth" never hits a musical peak where all of the instruments click together. Not that that is a bad thing, however. This truly is a perfect ballad.

"Drops In The Ocean" is another mellow, ballad-esque song, with a few guitar solos here and there, one soft and one aggressive. This song can almost be compared to a 20-minute epic in the sense that instruments each enter the song individually after a certain period of time. For example, the song begins with some really spacey keyboards that create the atmosphere, and the vocals come in alongside the strumming guitar. The tension starts to mount, and then the sound explodes and the bass and drums get heavier and heavier. The instrumental "Interlude" starts off with the sound of a baby crying and then some very classy piano playing takes over, while the guitar stays in the background for a while. The piano starts to overtake the guitar with around a minute left, and creates a magnificent solo that blends the guitar's raw power with the piano's cultured and cured tones. The ending of "Interlude" leads into "Where Are U?", which opens up with some more strumming guitar and vocals, but the song is different because of the added use of the cello in the chorus. The song's title may suggest that it is a very depressing, yet musically amazing song. With the accented voice pounding out lyrics such as "6 feet underground, where my heart was cold", this just may be the most depressing song that you will ever hear.

"Somewhere Between Here And There" is one of the only songs on the album that really creates a rich sound, and by that I mean all of the instruments working in harmony. Usually the instruments follow one another into a chorus, but this time they play in synchronized time which gives the song a very full sound, rather than the layered sound from the other tracks. Some excellent distorted keys open up this track, and the drum beats are at their most powerful. "Lost (I Miss You)" is a very weird track in the sense that they seem very happy and upbeat while singing, but the lyrics are incredibly tragic and gloomy. The song opens with the sounds of a beating heart, and then the track is dominated by some incredible work on the cello. "Disappeared" is a song that is literally built on percussion. For the first time on the album, the drums create the atmosphere and the guitar follows it. Some more sad vocals and spacey background keyboards lead into a blazing guitar ending. The final song, "She Prefers her Dreams", almost hits the 10 minute mark, and is the longest song on the album. During the song, the band has systematic explosions of sound that is very out of character for the group, but is a welcome change. The ending of this song really starts with around 3:30 left in the song, and just seems to keep building up and flowing on and on, and when it does eventually end all you want to do is play the CD over again from the top.

It's very hard to sum up this album, because most of everything has been touched upon already. I highly recommend this album to fans of Pink Floyd, Landberk and Shadowland. This band may be an acquired taste, but for those of you wanting some excellently engineered space rock, this is the band for you!

5 stars, no hesitation.